I believe that this is mostly about big business.

Re: FCC says no to mobile calls on airplanes.

Currently they can charge you an arm and a leg for using their phone service. The technical mumbo jumbo about interfering with their terrestrial networks is a poor attempt at best to explain why the carriers would not want this option available. They also are probably afraid of having to support it in the future, meaning, if you are allowed to make calls in flight, consumers will expect to be able to make calls in flight. Carriers whose service does not do so, and do so well, would face negative public opinion.

I agree that I would not want someone yapping on their phone next to me for a whole flight, but I don't like screaming kids, or snoring passengers, or drunk traveling salesmen either. Can't ban them.

If you wanted, you could limit cell phone calls to 15 minutes before landing so that people could coordinate their rides, or pickup options, or any other post-flight details, helping to reduce the amount of congestion at the airport with waiting cars and families. This would also limit the amount of "tower hopping" by the cell phone that occurs.

But hey, what do I know?